The world population has increased by leaps and bounds in the last thousand years alone, going from about 23 Million people in the year 1000 and then decreasing drasticly in the 1400's as a result of the "Black Death" of the middle ages and then rebounding to it's current level of about 1.5 Bilion people.
That is alot of humans inhabiting our planet. Let's go to my "neck of the woods" for a spell and see how we are contributing to this never ending growth.
The U.S. Population has increased by 100 Million people in a little under 40 years according to this article.
Imagine that that there will be 300 Million people in the United States alone by the fall of this year.
The year I was born (1966) there were about 200 Million people inhabiting our country.
So in essence, I have learned to share my country with close to 100 Million other new souls in the time I have been alive.
An interesting footnote here is that, according to the story below, Census officials feel that that baby that brings us to the 300 Million number will be.....you guessed it....Hispanic.
Interesting story on the U.S. population growth below. Read on for more:
JS Online: News
My question here is how much longer can our planet sustain this type of growth. According to some articles I have been reading the last few months, not long at this rate. Eventually our infastructure will start to decay and need to be rebuilt and there is only so much viable space for this growth. Though Mega Cities are sprouting up all over the globe and it is not uncommon to have cities with populations int he many millions, there is only so much land on which to grow food, which is the mainstay of our growth.
The world sure is getting a bit cramped isn't it??
If the US population is growing at a rate of .91% according to the CIA, that's 2.71 million new inhabitants per year.
ReplyDeleteBeing 3rd largest, that's a pretty impressive leap annually. It also means that the US economy is gonna keep on growing to sustain the growth in population. This has horrible implications on energy usage in a well developed economy like that of the United States.